DJ Tiesto - 643 (Love's on Fire)

I directed this promo for Itinerant productions shortly before they went bust.

Virgin had a reasonable budget of around £15k, and I had this idea of kids around a campfire - the opening scene from Jaws with more snogging and less shark. They loved the treatment and the reference movie that I cut to the track. This was the aforementioned opening of Jaws, along with location, styling, and grade reference photos. I would have uploaded this here were it not for the copyright issues, and the fact that I have absolutely no idea where it is).

Jamie Leask, the producer, did an amazing job of getting together a crack squad of a crew. Shirley Brodie first AD'd, and Shane Daly came on board to DOP. Shane and I clicked in the perfect way that you dream of as a director, and captured everything in the firelight.

We shot over a cold Friday night at Botany Bay in Kent, as a full moon rose. We'd checked the tide levels at a recce earlier in the week, and were confident that we'd be able to shoot on the beach.

The full moon meant that the tide was at its highest - and so after getting down, setting up, building the fire etc, we were about to turn over at midnight when the tide, which showed no sign of halting, began to lap at the backsides of the models who were sat with their backs to the sea.

It didn't work for Canute, and pleading with the sea to stop was not going to work for me either, and so we dismantled the fire, and rebuilt it further up the beach.

We ended up shooting the entire promo in around four hours - rotating the actors in front of a static camera and fire, swinging lenses as we went and getting them to kiss each other as if their lives depended on it. As this was happening, the grip was building the track on wet sand, but thankfully it held, and Shane got some amazing shots.

Nick Lofting did a great job of editing, and then I went in with Alex at Clear, who worked his magic in Shake, adding the explosion of sparks, and smoothing out any visible track.

The promo got several plays on MTV and other music channels, and the track was a UK top 40 hit. It's also noteworthy for featuring a young Agyness Deyn, who I knew then as Laura.